Alaska ends intra-Asia stopovers, devalues Singapore Airlines redemptions within region
If you're a fan of Alaska Airlines' Mileage Plan and use the program for intra-Asia travel, listen up because I have some bad news for you.
On Alaska's award chart webpage, you'll now find the following at the bottom of the page when you select flights within Asia: "Stopovers are not available on intra-Asia award redemptions." This includes Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines and Hainan Airlines.
Before these changes, you could book award flights within Asia with Alaska miles and add a free stopover, including one-way award tickets. There were some restrictions, however, including the inability to combine partners on a single award ticket. It does appear that stopovers for itineraries originating from the U.S. haven't been affected.
Additionally, as The Shutterwhale reports, Alaska has devalued intra-Asia redemptions on Singapore Airlines without notice.
The airline used to charge 25,000 Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles for a one-way business-class flight between Singapore and China on Singapore Airlines. Now, it will cost 60,000 miles (or 2.4x more) for the same flight.
Alaska has partnered with Singapore since 2017. Just last week, Alaska added the ability to redeem miles on Singapore-operated flights. Amazingly, it even applied to Singapore's business class and first-class Suites. TPG's Nick Ewen, at the time, was able to find Singapore business-class availability between Singapore and Hong Kong for just 25,000 miles one-way. TPG staffers were even able to find first-class tickets on some shorter routes, like Singapore (SIN) to Hong Kong (HKG) on the A380 for just 35,000 miles.
Here's the new award chart for intra-Asia flights on Singapore Airlines booked with Alaska miles:
We've reached out to Alaska and will update when we have more information.
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